Highways: The Downfall of the American City

May 18, 2016
Gx As

When the 48,000 miles of the interstate Highway System were being built across the country in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, entire city neighborhoods were leveled and wealthy residents moved to the suburbs, thus draining much of the tax bases in those cities. In essence, the highways gutted American cities.

Of course, that’s looking at only some of the major downsides to having built the world’s most advanced network of highways. Here’s a closer look at this perspective in a video from Vox.com.

This video came out just before this week’s Infrastructure Week. And just in case you were not aware, May 16th to May 23rd is Infrastructure Week. It is a national week of events, media coverage, and education and advocacy efforts to elevate infrastructure as a critical issue impacting all Americans. It is comprised of more than 100 Affiliate organizations from all sectors of the nation’s economy and civil society.

Forester Media, the publisher of Grading and Excavation Contractor (GX) magazine is an Infrastructure Week Affiliate. And this GX magazine blog has already been having the conversation about what the current state of our infrastructure has done to our economy and communities; what our priorities should be; as well as where to get the funding to repair, rebuild, and renew. I turned to grading and excavation industry executives and experts and asked four questions about infrastructure:

  • Which infrastructure projects should be given priority? Roads and bridges? Dams and levees? Water supply? Electrical grid?
  • Is there a solution to long-term infrastructure funding?
  • What kind of harm is the current state of our infrastructure doing to the economy and the community?
  • What can various government entities—from local to Federal—do to attract private sector support and investment?
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Responses from Volvo, CASE, John Deere, Trimble, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, and the Associated General Contractors of America have all been printed in this blog over the past several weeks.

These issues go well beyond grading and excavation. All of Forester’s publications, Stormwater, Erosion Control, Business Energy, Water Efficiency, and MSW Management have asked the same four questions of their various industry executives and experts. The responses are all listed here.

As for the above video, my message is this: As we look to the future of our infrastructure, it would be prudent to realize and analyze the mistakes and successes of our past.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.